PBS is retaking the reins of Food TV, I think. Local PBS powerhouse stations are letting well known Chefs do what they want without having to mug for the camera, plug a specific advertiser's product, or break up their rhythm to support commercial breaks.
They even have a foodie show, Diary of a Foodie, which travels around the world to showcase a particular item. The one I saw most recently was about salt.
For Alton fans, you have America?s Test Kitchen which I think while Alton wins in the presentation and overall likeability of the host, ATK does provide excellent and equal insight.
So while raystorm brings up the legends of the past, who are shown occasionally on various local programming (YMMV), you have a new crop of really good shows from Simply Ming, Lydia Bastianich, Charlie Trotter, Rick Bayless (much more humble on public TV), and Jacques Pepin.
Of course, there are some really horrendous shows like Grilling Maestros, where it is so bad it is actually fun. Fritz H. Sonnenschmidt has incredible credentials, former President of the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) but he is so damn funny when he?s at the grill. You wonder if he?s going to set himself on fire or kill someone with his butter on butter recipes (Paula Dean, you have competition). But all in all, I want to watch a cooking show to enlighten me. I want to know are they doing something new to me, something unexpected, or improvements to what I already know.
Originally posted by: raystorm
Originally posted by: theknight571
Got it... they need to start FoodTV at Nite (ala Nick at Night) and rerun all of the classic cooking shows... The French Chef (Julia Child), Galloping Gormet (Graham Kerr), Frugal Gourmet (Jeff Smith), Justin Wilson, Yan Can Cook (Martin Yan), the Great Chefs series, The Urban Peasant (James Barber), etc.
I grew up on all of those pbs cooking shows. I cannot stand most of the boring chefs on the Food Network. They still give Martin Yan stuff on pbs (as well as Jacques Pepin shows) but thats about it for the classic cooking shows. There are a few good ones on PBS that I dig like Mexico: One Plate at a Time (Rick Bayless), Simply Ming (Ming Tsai) and New Scandinavian Cooking (various chefs).
Alton Brown is the best the Food Network has though I do like Iron Chef and that show that goes to different diners and drive ins around the country.